I have added new art to the website:
http://www.toddlockwood.com/galleries/new_art/08/
While it is not all technically new, it is finally about time it went up …
June 19th, 2011
New Art on the website!
June 17th, 2011
Step by Step: The cover for Intruder, by CJ Cherryh, from DAW books, part III
Step Three (continued)
Part I is here.
Part II is here.
Here’s the same progression, focusing on the characters. You may note subtle changes: at about 1:32 the man to the left of Machigi gets tired of looking left and shifts his gaze to the right. Bren ties a different bow into his hair. And the woman on the far right loses her manly arm and acquires a more feminine one. Click on the picture:
In the following video I’m focused on the vase and the monkey. Note that between 0:14 and 0:18 I tweak the silhouette of the vase, then between 0:45 and 0:50 I fix the curve of the upper groove. Click the pic:
Finally, since Machigi’s face was the first I painted, it was touched the most often over the course of the work. Click the pic:
Selected details:
ttp://www.tolo.biz/2011/06/17/step-by-step-the-cover-for-intruder-by-cj-cherryh-from-daw-books/
Step by Step: The cover for Intruder, by CJ Cherryh, from DAW books, part II
Step Three: Painting
Part I is here.
I do my drawings on the computer using Corel Painter—even if the finish is going to be done traditionally. It simply saves so much time. Here in this time-lapse of the painting, you can see that I begin with the final sketch on a ghosted back layer to help position the elements. Though I started the drawing of the vase in purple, color doesn’t really matter at this stage. I want to establish my main masses before I get too invested in color. I also want to watch my narrative content. It was especially important that Bren, Ilisidi, and Machigi look like they were admiring the vase, and not spotting the monkey. At first I had Machigi gesturing toward the vase, but he looked like he was pointing out the little intruder! With grandma gesturing instead, the group narrative came together.
Once I’m satisfied, I take my monochrome drawing into Photoshop to colorize it a little bit, turning my drawing into an underpainting. I will typically turn all the noses, ears and knuckles pink, for example, determine warm and cool zones, and drop in some colors that I want to show through my glazes to come. At about 32 second into this video I have what is essentially my underpainting.
You’ll note that I like to work from background to foreground initially—a holdover from my traditional habit. My usual digital approach is not terribly different from my traditional approach: transparent glazes first, followed by opaque highlights, working back and forth that way through as many layers as it takes. In this illustration of dark-skinned people in a white room, once the background was more or less finished it was easy to go straight for the faces, to establish my dark and light extremes early.
At about 1:19 you’ll see that I became dissatisfied with the arrangement of heads on the right side. The two background characters on the right echoed Ilisidi and the boy too perfectly, causing stagnation in the choreography. I spent the better part of a day moving heads and bodies around. In the end what was required was what my friend Greg Manchess calls “uncomfortable overlap.” Meaningful groupings, in this case abetted by adding more heads in the background to complete the clusters and give movement to the scene. Click the image below to view the movie:
Next: Characters in Time-Lapse
Step by Step: The cover for Intruder, by CJ Cherryh, from DAW books
Step One: Sketches
Intruder is the thirteenth book in a long-running series of science fiction classics by award-winning author CJ Cherryh. This was a tale of taught political intrigue, and a good read, as always. But as an illustrator, it was a challenge. Much of what happens in Ms. Cherryh’s books is in the heads of the POV characters, and action is usually not of the chase-and-gunfight sort. Reading the book entirely is essential, to get a feel for the characters and the arc of the story. I read this one once, and then skimmed through it again before I knew what I had to do.
The main protagonist in the series is Bren Cameron, a human spacefarer who serves as the paidhi-aiji, something of an ambassador of the humans on a world of big, dark aliens called the Atevi. He has been on every cover but one. Various Atevi are also seen, and for this cover the client specifically wanted to see Ilisidi, the Dowager and leader of one of the battling factions of Atevi, and her nine year old grandson Cajeiri, who had not been seen on a cover yet.
The first trouble I had is that the Dowager appears in only one scene – the very last; I don’t usually like to mine the end of a book for material because it can give too much away. The second problem was that Cajeiri wasn’t in that scene with her, or with her anywhere else in the tale. The third problem was that there was no action at all in this book of the sort that lends itself easily to a cover—no guns, no chases, no space battles. It all happens indoors, and the tension is built upon political sparring.
In this book, two visuals stood out as good metaphors for the story arcs that I might use without giving too much away—a beautiful porcelain vase, and Cajeiri’s troublesome pet, a monkey-like creature native to the Atevi homeworld.
I set to my first sketches knowing that the vase was the primary Star of the painting, though Bren, Ilisidi, and the boy and his monkey had significant co-starring roles. Sketch number 1 is the barest form of the idea, loosely laid down with big strokes. It suggested a series of sketches of which number 2 was one, with Bren contemplating the vessel of his machinations (almost literally), and the others gathered round. Boring! I pulled back to a banquet scene for sketch 3 and found it far too staid and symmetrical, though there were some first hints at how the values might ultimately be arranged.
I did a number of sketches, moving in and out of the banquet setting, until it finally occurred to me to separate the boy from his monkey. It was only right, and added the narrative kick that sparked my interest. It was in this same sketch that I began to feel the relationship of Bren, Ilisidi, and another faction leader named Machigi. Also in this sketch I began to look for a way to make the vase alien and strange. Several stages later, simply turning Bren’s head made their grouping start to gel. By number 6, I began to see how this would work.
Sketch 7 was part of a series I did simply to reaffirm for myself that closer was better, because this was such a character-driven story, and that I did still want the vase to be centered in the scene. It gave it solidity and importance, and allowed the monkey to be out of sight of everyone, including the boy who is looking for him. The only kinks remaining were to find the best place for the boy—behind his grandmother’s back, not Bren’s—and to realize how important it was that the three adults not look like they were at all aware of either boy or pet.
I resized the sketch to be certain that it fit the book format and negotiated some background elements to add the final lines of movement. With the approval of the client, I was ready to shoot and gather reference, with this drawing as my roadmap.
Step Two: Reference
Good reference is essential. There are artists who make everything up out of their heads, and if you know your stuff you can do it. I do it more than I like to admit, but even if you understand light and perspective and anatomy very, very well, good reference will fill in the holes in your knowledge and add realism and life to the final image.
If I have learned anything in my career, it’s that when you find a good model, keep him! My son Tyler is a fan of the sorts of books and games that I illustrate, but he is also a theater major and a fine character actor who gets the subtleties I look for. Plus he has good facial features that are easy to adapt to my needs.
Other reference comes from my files of images I have shot over the years or gathered off of the internet. I spend a good day going through the pictures I’m going to use, organizing them and choosing the ones that best fit my vision. I arrange the chosen images together on my left-hand monitor, then take screen-snaps of them, name them and file them. By the end of this session, I had several reference collages, of everything from previous covers to old ladies, from architecture to vases.
It’s important in this day of copyright hyper-vigilance to never copy without permission. Nothing I find on the internet ends up in a painting. I only ever use “scrap” to add to my understanding of photos I have shot for myself or things I have invented: What makes one old lady look like a hag, but another look regal? What range of values should I expect in a white room? How does the light shine on and through the glazes on a porcelain container? And so on. Stealing is bad. Don’t do it. Moreover, it’s limiting. Why tie yourself to an image you’ve found which is probably not what you really had in mind to begin with? Let an idea drive the build-out; don’t start with a piece of reference and try to build an idea out of it.
With the reference collages stacked on my left monitor, I’m ready to start the drawing.
Next up: The Painting
Posted by Todd in Art! at 3:57 PM PDT
June 1st, 2011
A Curvilinear Perspective Brain-Bender
I’ve written an article for my friend Dan dos Santos’ Muddy Colors blog. Check it out!
After a while, it will reside here as well.
April 27th, 2011
Orphaned Works & Ephermera: Update:
FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP
4.27.2011
GRAPHIC ARTISTS GUILD LAWSUIT DISMISSED
Last week the New York State Supreme Court, New York County, dismissed all claims in a million dollar lawsuit brought by the Graphic Artists Guild (GAG) against the Illustrators’ Partnership of America (IPA) and five named individuals.
In the lawsuit, GAG asserted claims for defamation and interference with contractual relations, alleging that IPA had interfered with a “business relationship” GAG had entered into that enabled GAG to collect orphaned reprographic royalties derived from the licensing of illustrators’ work. GAG alleged that efforts by IPA to create a collecting society to return lost royalties to artists “interfered” with GAG’s “business” of appropriating these orphaned fees.
In her decision, Judge Debra James ruled that statements made by the Illustrators’ Partnership and the other defendants were true; that true statements cannot be defamatory; that illustrators have a “common interest” in orphaned income; and that a “common-interest privilege” may arise from both a right and a duty to convey relevant information, however contentious, to others who share that interest or duty.
Regarding a key statement at issue in the lawsuit: that GAG had taken over one and a half million dollars of illustrators’ royalties “surreptitiously,” the judge wrote:
“Inasmuch as the statement [by IPA] was true, [GAG]‘s claim cannot rest on allegations of a reckless disregard of whether it was false or not. Truthful and accurate statements do not give rise to defamation liability concerns.” (Emphasis added.)
And she noted:
“The plaintiff Guild has conceded that it received foreign reproductive royalties and that it does not distribute any of the money to artists.”
Labor Department filings provided as evidence to the court document that between 2000 and 2007, GAG collected at least $1,581,667 in illustrators’ reprographic royalties. GAG admitted to having collected similar royalties since 1996. GAG’s officers have repeatedly refused to disclose how much money their organization has received to date or how the money has been spent.
DUTY AND COMMON INTEREST
The judge concluded that this situation justified an assertion of common interest by IPA. This means that “the party communicating [relevant information] has an interest or has a duty” to convey that information truthfully to others “having a corresponding interest or duty”:
“The duty need not be a legal one, but only a moral or social duty. The parties need only have such a relation to each other as would support a reasonable ground for supposing an innocent motive for imparting the information. Here the plaintiff Guild’s factual allegations demonstrate that the defendants’ statements were both true, and fall within the parameters of the common-interest privilege.” (Emphasis added.)
We hope this decision will end the two and a half years of litigation during which GAG pursued its claims against IPA and artists Brad Holland, Cynthia Turner and Ken Dubrowski of IPA, as well as attorney Bruce Lehman, former Commissioner of the US Patent Office and Terry Brown, Director Emeritus of the Society of Illustrators.
All defendants were participants in a public presentation sponsored February 21, 2008 by 12 illustrators organizations. The presentation was disrupted by GAG’s officers and their attorney. A videotape of the event proves that statements which GAG alleged to be defamatory were made only in response to GAG’s intervention, and that until that time, no speakers had mentioned GAG or GAG’s longstanding appropriation of illustrators’ royalties.
Last year, on January 12, 2010, Judge James issued a prior ruling dismissing nearly all of GAG’s causes of action. This left only a claim asserted by GAG against Brad Holland. But in a response filed with the court February 4, 2010, attorney Jason Casero, serving as counsel for IPA, pointed out that GAG’s remaining claim rested on an allegedly defamatory statement that Holland never made. When confronted with evidence, GAG was forced to admit it had “inadvertently attributed” the statement to Holland.
GAG subsequently filed new motions in an effort to revive its claims against IPA and the other defendants. Last summer the judge consolidated GAG’s multiple motions and on April 18, 2011, she dismissed all ten causes of action against IPA and all the defendants.
REPROGRAPHIC RIGHTS AND ORPHAN WORKS
GAG served the lawsuit on IPA October 10, 2008, seven days after Congress failed to pass the Orphan Works Act of 2008. The Illustrators’ Partnership and 84 other creators’ organizations opposed that legislation. GAG had lobbied for passage of the House version of the Orphan Works bill. Mandatory lobbying disclosures document that GAG spent nearly $200,000 in Orphan Works lobbying fees.
In our opinion, the issues behind the lawsuit are greater than whether an organization should be allowed to benefit from the millions of dollars that, collectively, illustrators are losing. We believe the reprographic rights issue is linked to both orphan works legislation and the Google Book Settlement, which Federal Judge Denny Chin dismissed on March 22, 2011.
Each of these developments involves an effort by third parties to define artists’ work and/or royalties as orphaned property, and to assert the right, in the name of the public interest or class representation, to exploit that work commercially or to appropriate the royalties for use at their sole discretion. So far, judges have affirmed that copyright is an individual, not a collective right, and that unless one explicitly transfers that right, no business or organization can automatically acquire it by invoking an orphaned property premise. Now the challenge for artists will be to see that Congress does not pass legislation to permit what the courts have so far denied.
We’ll have more to say about this issue in the future. For now we’d like to conclude by thanking our attorney Jason Casero, who provided us with a strong, incisive and heartfelt defense; his law firm, McDermott Will & Emery, which provided us with his services; the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts of New York and its Director Elena Paul. We’d also like to thank Dan Vasconcellos, Richard Goldberg, and the over 700 artists and illustrators who in 2008 signed a petition asking GAG (unsuccessfully as it turned out) to drop the lawsuit; the support of so many colleagues was a great tonic at a low time. Finally we’d like to thank the representatives of the 12 organizations that comprise the American Society of Illustrators’ Partnership (ASIP). ASIP is the coalition organization IPA incorporated in 2007 to act as a collecting society to return royalties to artists.
- Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner for the Board of the Illustrators’ Partnership
Recipients may post or email this message in its entirety to any interested party.
Link: http://ipaorphanworks.blogspot.com/2011/04/graphic-artists-guild-lawsuit-dismissed_27.html
Posted by Todd in Blog Home, Orphaned Works at 8:10 PM PDT
March 15th, 2011
Buy art, help Japan!
A friend is auctioning off some cool little alien paintings to benefit Japan:
http://alienmenagerie.blogspot.com/2011/03/artists-help-japan_15.html
Uchujin, By and © Bruce Jensen
Posted by Todd in Blog Home at 11:17 AM PDT
December 15th, 2010
Art Evolution
Scott Taylor has posted Art Evolution 14, highlighting yours truly. 
Of course, you can see the image itself larger right here . . .
Posted by Todd in Art! at 12:24 PM PDT
November 26th, 2010
Spellbound
Cover art for the book by that name by Blake Charlton.
For a step by step animation of the head in process, click here.
November 23rd, 2010
New Art on my website. Check it out!
http://www.toddlockwood.com/galleries/new_art/07/